1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, and particularly relates to such a method and a memory medium directed to the collecting, storing, and retrieving of express knowledge utilized in business corporations.
In detail, the present invention relates to such a method of and a memory medium storing programs for registering knowledge in a computerized library and providing retrieved knowledge to one who requested a retrieval of particular knowledge.
2. Description of the Related Art
When there is a need for collecting knowledge such as regarding research and development, marketing, managerial works, or the like, a research and development department, a marketing department, a managerial-work department, or the like collects knowledge by contacting people who have relevant knowledge. Such knowledge may be obtained via a personal interview after an appropriate person to contact is referenced by each responsible department. Alternatively, knowledge may be obtained in a document format after contacting an appropriate source of information to provide such knowledge.
If an appropriate person who was in charge of a relevant work is no longer available because of reassignment, retirement, relocation, etc., record files may be accessed to obtain knowledge.
When collecting information from a computerized library located in a different department, a personal visit may be made to that department to obtain the information. Alternatively, such information stored in a computerized library in a different department may be printed out and faxed over to a department which requested the information.
Knowledge involved in business operations of a corporation is by no means in the possession of each individual as memory-retained personal knowledge. This gives a rise to the following problems:
knowledge of an individual will be lost when this individual leaves because of retirement, relocation, etc.;
it is difficult to find a correct person when others try to obtain relevant knowledge; and
even when a correct person is identified, relevant knowledge is not readily obtained if this person is in a remote location such as in a foreign country or taking a long vacation.
Also, a computerized library is usually not managed as a company-wide resource, but each department responsible for its own information manages its own computerized library. This makes it harder for other departments to access a computerized library that belongs to another department. Further, there is a problem in that storing knowledge in a computerized library takes a lengthy time.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can reduce a manual labor involved in storing knowledge in a computerized library so as to save time and labor, and can make knowledge of each individual readily available to other people which knowledge would be otherwise buried as individual""s personal possession.
Further, there is a need for a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can make search based on an agent function with respect to computerized libraries distributed within a corporation, and can allow users to retrieve knowledge without paying attention to a physical location of such knowledge.
Moreover, there is a need for a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can determine attributes of knowledge stored in a computerized library based on characteristic information of the library, and can allow users to retrieve knowledge only relevant to a desired attribute.
Also, there is a need for a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can automatically extract frequently-accessed information, useful information, or the like for use by experts in relevant fields, and can allows such information to be refined into more usable or more accurate information and to be restored in the computerized library.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can satisfy the needs described above.
It is another and more specific object of the present invention to provide a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can reduce a manual labor involved in storing knowledge in a computerized library so as to save time and labor, and can make knowledge of each individual readily available to other people which knowledge would be otherwise buried as individual""s personal possession.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can make search based on an agent function with respect to computerized libraries distributed within a corporation, and can allow users to retrieve knowledge without paying attention to a physical location of such knowledge.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can determine attributes of knowledge stored in a computerized library based on characteristic information of the library, and can allow users to retrieve knowledge only relevant to a desired attribute.
It is further another object of the present invention to provide a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge and a memory medium storing programs for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge, wherein the method and the programs can automatically extract frequently-accessed information, useful information, or the like for use by experts in relevant fields, and can allows such information to be refined into more usable or more accurate information and to be restored in the computerized library.
In order to achieve the above objects according to the present invention, a method of collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge includes the steps of collecting knowledge information from information-source terminals via a network, the knowledge information including information regarding research and development, problems, and solutions of the problems, storing the collected knowledge information in libraries by classifying the collected knowledge information based on a type and an attribute of the collected knowledge information, organizing the stored knowledge information based on importance and frequency of use thereof. storing the organized knowledge information in the libraries after standardizing the organized knowledge information so as to be usable by others, and retrieving the standardized knowledge information from a library in response to a retrieval request so as to provide the retrieved information for a requesting party which made the retrieval request.
According to one aspect of the present invention, the method as described above is such that the standardized knowledge information stored in the libraries is grouped according to the type, the attribute, an area, and a group to which the library belongs is identified based on contents of the retrieval request so that the library is subjected to retrieval of information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the method as described at the top is such that the libraries frequently used by a given one of user groups are recorded by using library IDs, and the library is identified based on the library IDs.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the method as described at the top is such that a history of retrievals is recorded with respect to each one of user groups, and when a plurality of pieces of retrieved information are obtained from a plurality of libraries, the plurality of pieces of retrieved information are ranked according to frequency of retrievals of respective libraries based on the history of retrievals before being provided to the requesting party.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the method as described at the top is such that a history of retrievals is recorded with respect to each one of users, and a summary is stored with respect to each piece of the standardized knowledge information, wherein a summary of the retrieved information is sent to users who frequently retrieve information relating to the retrieved information based on the history of the retrievals.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the method as described at the top is such that a history of retrievals is recorded with respect to each one of users, and the history of retrievals is accessed when the standardized knowledge information is updated, so that updated information or a summary thereof is sent to users who frequently retrieve information relating to the updated standardized knowledge information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a system for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge includes terminals used for registering information and making a first retrieval request via a network, at least one information center including:
a knowledge-information collecting unit which collects knowledge information from the terminals via the network, the knowledge information including information regarding research and development, problems, and solutions of the problems;
a library which stores the collected knowledge information by classifying the collected knowledge information based on a type and an attribute of the collected knowledge information;
an important-information extracting unit which extracts the stored knowledge information based on importance and frequency of use thereof; and
a standardizing unit which stores the extracted knowledge information in the library after standardizing the extracted knowledge information so as to be usable by others;
at least one retrieval device which retrieves the standardized knowledge information from the library of a corresponding one of the at least one information center in response to a second retrieval request received via the network, and a retrieval mediating device which selects one of the at least one information center in response to the first retrieval request made by one of the terminals via the network so as to provide the second retrieval request to a corresponding one of the at least one retrieval device, and sends retrieved information obtained from the selected one of the at least one information center to the one of the terminals.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as described above is such that the standardized knowledge information stored in the library is grouped according to the type, the attribute, an area, and a group to which the library belongs is identified based on contents of the first retrieval request so that the library is subjected to retrieval of information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as first described is such that the retrieval mediating device defines user groups, and records libraries frequently used by a given one of the user groups by using library IDs, and selects a library to be subjected to retrieval of information based on the library IDs.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as first described is such that the retrieval mediating device records a history of retrievals with respect to each one of user groups, and when a plurality of pieces of retrieved information are obtained from a plurality of libraries, the retrieval mediating device ranks the plurality of pieces of retrieved information according to frequency of retrievals of respective libraries based on the history of retrievals before providing the plurality of pieces of retrieved information to a requesting terminal.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as first described is such that the at least one information center further generates and stores a summary with respect to a corresponding piece of the standardized knowledge information, and the retrieval mediating device records a history of retrievals with respect to each one of users, and, based on the history of retrievals, sends the summary of the retrieved information to users who frequently retrieve information relating to the retrieved information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the system as first described is such that the retrieval mediating device records a history of retrievals with respect to each one of users, and accesses the history of retrievals when the standardized knowledge information is updated in the library, so as to send updated information or a summary thereof to users who frequently retrieve information relating to the updated standardized knowledge information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer-readable medium having programs embodied therein for collecting, storing, and retrieving knowledge includes knowledge-information collecting means for causing an information center to collect knowledge information, the knowledge information including information regarding research and development, problems, and solutions of the problems, knowledge-information-storage means for causing the information center to store the collected knowledge information in a library by classifying the collected knowledge information based on a type and an attribute of the collected knowledge information, important-information extracting means for causing the information center to extract the stored knowledge information from the library based on importance and frequency of use thereof, standardizing means for causing the information center to store the extracted knowledge information in the library after standardizing the extracted knowledge information so as to be usable by others, retrieval means for causing a retrieval device to retrieve the standardized knowledge information from the library of a corresponding one of information centers in response to a first retrieval request received via the network, retrieval requesting means for causing a retrieval mediating device to select one of the information centers in response to a second retrieval request received via the network, and to provide the first retrieval request to a corresponding one of retrieval devices, and retrieved-information transmitting means for causing the retrieval mediating device to send retrieved information obtained from the selected one of the information centers to a requesting terminal which made the second retrieval request.
According to the present invention, the collected knowledge information is stored in accordance with classifications defined based on attributes and types of the collected knowledge information, so that individuals of each department can merely submit the knowledge without paying attention to formats being used with regard to the submitted knowledge. Extraction and refinement of useful and/or frequently used information among the collected knowledge information makes it possible to store the standardized knowledge information having a commercial value. When an access is made to the standardized knowledge information, therefore, fees can be charged for the use of the knowledge. Further, when a retrieval is made with respect to the standardized knowledge information, a user does not have to know the physical location of the device where relevant information is stored.
Since time and labor required for registering knowledge in the computerized library are reduced, personal knowledge which would otherwise be buried is encouraged to be provided for use by others. Further, useful and frequently used information is automatically extracted and presented to experts, thereby allowing the experts to refine the information into more accurate one and store the refined information in the computerized library. This facilitates distribution of knowledge, and enhances quality of knowledge within the organization. When new knowledge information is collected, the administrator may issue a message for selecting an expert in charge of the new knowledge information, thereby deciding the expert in charge.
When information is to be retrieved, the computerized libraries distributed within the organization are subjected to search based on agent functions, so that users do not have to know the physical locations of relevant knowledge. Further, a search can be made only with respect to knowledge information having appropriate attributes matching the need of the users. Such a selective search can be achieved by using characteristic information of the libraries to identify attributes of the stored knowledge information. This achieves more efficient and more accurate retrieval of desired information.
Further, a group to which a relevant library belongs is identified when a retrieval request is made, and, thus, a search is made with respect to the library. In this manner, users do not have to pay attention to the physical location where relevant knowledge information is stored.
Moreover, user groups are defined with respect to each organizational unit such as a department, and frequently used libraries are recorded on a user-group-wise basis. By specifying a name of a library at the time of making a retrieval request, this library can be given the highest priority when searching relevant information, thereby reducing a time for the search.
Also, when a plurality of pieces of retrieved information are obtained from a plurality of libraries, the plurality of pieces of retrieved information are ranked according to frequency of use of the libraries based on a history of retrievals, and are sent to terminals along with the accorded ranks when the terminals made a retrieval request. This makes it possible to present the retrieved information in a descending order of likelihood of usefulness, thereby reducing a time which the users need to identify the most desired information.
Further, users who are likely to retrieve information relating to the retrieved information are provided with a summary of the retrieved information. This is done based on a history of retrievals recorded with respect to each user, and makes it possible to supply the summary to the users who are likely to take interest in the retrieved information. Since only the summary is transmitted, the amount of transmitted information is small. Also, only the users who need this particular knowledge information make access, excess traffic can be avoided.
Moreover, when the standardized knowledge information stored in the library is updated, the updated information or the summary thereof is sent to users who have frequently accessed the standardized knowledge information or information relating to the standardized knowledge information. Such users are identified based on a history of retrievals recorded with respect to each user. In this manner, the users are kept posted of the most updated information.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.